The 80's

Mikhail Gorbachev became the Secretary General (and later President) of the Soviet Union in March 1985, drastically changing the character of Soviet leadership. Gorbachev started a group of domestic policies call glasnost, which means openness in Russian. He began to reform the Soviet economy by introducing elements of a free market system, such as competition, to make it more efficient. Glasnost also loosened the Soviet government's grip on its citizens' private and cultural life. Dissidents, such as Andrei Sacharov, were released.

• October 1980

  The West Valley Demonstration Project Act of 1980 directs DOE to construct a high-level nuclear waste solidification demonstration at the West Valley Plant in New York. The only commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the United States, the West Valley Plant recovered uranium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel from 1966-1972. Nearly 600,000 gallons of high-level nuclear waste are stored at the plant.

• November 1980

  Single-shell nuclear waste storage tanks at the Hanford Plant in Washington no longer receive waste. The liquid waste is being transferred to newer design double-shell tanks.

• December 1980

  The Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act is passed, making states responsible for the disposal of their own low-level nuclear waste, such as from hospitals and industry.

  The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (also known as Superfund) is passed in response to the discovery in the late 1970's of a large number of abandoned, leaking hazardous waste dumps. Under Superfund, the Environmental Protection Agency identifies hazardous sites, takes appropriate action, and sees that the responsible party pays for the cleanup.

• 1982

  The Shippingport nuclear powerplant, built in 1957, is retired. Congress assigns the decontamination and decommissioning of this commercial reactor to DOE. This is the first complete decontamination and decommissioning of a reactor in the United States. The reactor vessel is shipped to a low-level waste disposal facility at Hanford, Washington. The site is cleaned and released for unrestricted use in November 1989.

• January 1983

  The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 is signed, authorizing the development of a high-level nuclear waste repository.

• March 1983

  Reagan terms the Soviet Union the "evil empire" and announces the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), a satellite-based defense system that would destroy incoming missiles and warheads in space.

• November 1983

  DOE begins construction of the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) at the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina. DWPF will make high-level nuclear waste into a glass-like substance, which will then be shipped to a repository deep within the Earth for permanent disposal.

• April 1984

  In LEAF (Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation) vs. Hodel, the court rules that DOE's Y-12 Plant in Tennessee is subject to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

• August 1985

  The Soviet Union announces a nuclear testing moratorium.

• January 1986

  Soviet President Gorbachev calls for disarmament by the year 2000.

• April 1986

  Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor meltdown and fire occur in the Soviet Union. Massive quantities of radioactive material are released.

• March 1987

  Soviet President Gorbachev proposes elimination of European short and medium range missiles. Later, NATO and West Germany support Gorbachev's proposal, with some changes.

• December 1987

  Soviet President Gorbachev and President Reagan sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (NIF) Treaty, the first arms treaty signed by the superpowers calling for elimination of a whole class of weapons--intermediate range missiles.

  Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act designates Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for scientific investigation as candidate site for the nation's first geological repository for high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.

• November 1989

  DOE changes its focus from nuclear materials production to one of environmental cleanup, openness to public input and overall accountability by forming the Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management.

  The Berlin Wall is torn down. Many communist governments in Eastern Europe collapse.

• 1989

  Nuclear weapons production facilities at Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado and Fernald Feed Materials Production Center in Ohio cease production and change their missions to cleaning up their facilities.